


open the door

by homosexuwhy



Series: DaveKat Week 2017 [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, actually its just a back massage or whatever, i think this is like pale smut honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 07:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11778087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosexuwhy/pseuds/homosexuwhy
Summary: “dude, I might kinda need help or stg if you’re not busy” was the message Karkat received. Quickly followed by “shit fuck never mind just drag your ass here”Needless to say, Karkat made it there and was knocking on the door in no time.





	open the door

“dude, I might kinda need help or stg if you’re not busy” was the message Karkat received. Quickly followed by “shit fuck never mind just drag your ass here”

Needless to say, Karkat made it there and was knocking on the door in no time. (If the mayor had taught him one thing, it was etiquette). He heard shuffling feet from the inside and had the door open by Dave.

“sup” He said. Karkat wondered if it was purely out of habit or if the wording had been a voluntary decision.

“What do you want?” he answered, no bite.

Dave timidly opened the door wider, and gestured Karkat to come in. He did. On the floor, he found the usual mess. But instead of all over, everything was thrown in the same corner, as if to make room for something else.

Dave closed the door slowly, and without the usual smoothness he has.

“So, I was practicing strifing, right.” Dave started. “Like all the way back to basics. But I think I kind of fucked it up trying to fall.” He took a deep breath, acknowledging the question in Karkat’s eyes.

“I want you to un-fuck me up.” He said, followed by a wink.

Karkat slowly approached Dave, looked around him inquisitively, searching for the injury.

“How?” he asked softly.

Dave took another step back, removed his t shirt. Then, he plopped himself face first on the bed. He contorted his right arm and touched the general region of his left shoulder blade.

“This hurts like a bitch. Here, gimme your hands.”

Karkat slowly rested his hand near Dave’s. He was careful not to hurt him even more. Dave might be tough but humans are soft and mushy inside and out.

“Ok. Now can you like, find the edge of that bone?” Dave retreated his hand. Karkat let the tips of his fingers run through Dave’s back, circling the place he indicated. He felt the dip between the bone and Dave’s muscles.

“You can press it, It’s okay.” He said, voice muffled partially.

Karkat kneaded his fingers against Dave’s back, increasing in pressure. Once Dave released a hum, he settled for the intensity. His skin was warm, and the dried sweat from training stopped Karkat’s fingers from sliding properly from one point to another.

“Dave.” He said, not above a whisper. “Do you know how pale this is? In Alternia, we would…”

“I’m not in Alternia.” Dave cut in. “I’m in pain.”

“Okay, sorry.”

“We can talk later if you want.” Dave compromised.

None of them spoke after that, and Karkat continued working with three fingers on his assigned region. After a while, he was tired of the repetitiveness, and changed it to circular motions with his two thumbs.

Like that, he could feel the tension points hiding in the muscles, and how they seemed to soften with his touch. He couldn’t completely make it go away, but he settled for what he managed. Humans couldn’t chirp like trolls did, but if they could, Karkat was sure Dave would be doing that right then.

Once he had worked through all he could find in the shoulder blades, he moved up to Dave’s shoulder. He felt where his clavicles created a soft spot with a tendon leading all the way up to the neck.

 “Dude, you don’t have to.” Dave said, moving as if to leave.

“It’s okay. I don’t have anything else to do anyway.”

Karkat repositioned himself to sit on top of Dave’s lower back, straddling him and giving himself access to both shoulders.  He used his palms to push the skin outwards, and followed by pulling it back towards himself with his fingers in the point Dave’s shoulders curved.

“This is really interesting. I can feel your muscles.” Karkat commented

“Well, sorry, mister tough skin. Some of us pink monkeys are soft.” Dave bit back, halfheartedly.

“No, really. It’s like one of those frogs you can see the inside. All the organs. I can feel where your bones connect and where your muscles are contracted or not.”

“Yeah well, you are gonna like this.” Dave said after a while. “Never say I never did anything for ya. Can you see my spine? It’s very delicate, so don’t fuck around with it. Touch it. You should feel like, where each vertebra meets with the other.”

Karkat did, and hell, he could. He felt the relief of each piece of bone, how they each had a peak, and lowering his hands he could sense the rise and fall that characterized Dave’s posture when he was standing. He felt it widening at the bottom, and his hands trailed the way back up again and going down a few more times.

He took some freedom to explore, and his hands diverged to the rib cage. Trolls would have different rib cages due to the grub scars, and the legs that were there before. Dave’s had a slight oval shape, and the ribs got smaller as they went down. Not unlike everything else, he could feel where was bone and where was muscle and fat. He had the guess that, if he pressed hard enough, he could feel the ribs bending.

He could fit his fingers in the space between and slide them along like a rail, following the curve. He made a tentative scratch, a soft one, on Dave’s skin. He saw the it turn white as Dave muttered complaints, and later, into a red line.

Tired of his position, Karkat rolled back to the bed, lying next to Dave, on his side. He pulled Dave’s hand to himself, and knead from the palm to each fingertip, and then back down.

“Your hand skin has some tough patches.” Karkat observed.

“it’s a callus. Happens when you keep hurting or putting friction in your skin. When it heals back, it hardens so you don’t hurt it again.”

“Huh. Reminds me of my skin.”

“Your skin can’t be that tough. At least your face must be soft or something.”

“Try me.”

Dave put his fingers in Karkat’s cheek, moving them in a sloppy circle. He took two fingers to Karkat’s cheekbone, and felt it from the point near his nose beck to where it met the skull. Karkat felt his own face relax, like it had never met such a gentle touch. And you know what, maybe it hadn’t.

“Dave, let’s talk about this.” His voice came out with a slight drawl. “This is like, a pale make out session.”

Dave’s hand moved up to slide across one of his eyebrows as he conjured an answer.

“So what.” He went with.

“So what, I don’t want to be getting into a situation like this and shrugging it off tomorrow.”

“Dude.” Dave said. His hand drifted back to Karkat’s cheeks, clearing his line of sight. “You don’t have to shrug this off tomorrow.”

“You know how I am, and you know how horrible I am at-“

“Cut yourself some slack, it’s been two years already. Gamzee was not your fault, okay. None of that was no one’s fault.” Dave breathed out of his nose. “And if you ask me, you did a fine job with him.”

“A fine job? Look how that turned out!”

“You were two kids. Playing a game, which not only ended your world but also locked you in a decaying universe. You did everything you could, man.” His hands moved again, and he rubbed his thumb over Karkat’s mouth imitating a shoosh motion, if shyly.

Karkat closed his eyes at last, and leaned in on the touch.

“Okay.” He answered quietly.

Dave pulled him into an awkward laying down hug, sliding one of his arms under Karkat’s neck and the other one around his waist. He pulled him closer, Karkat’s hands rested against Dave’s chest.

Karkat listened to his breathing, and emitted a low, involuntary chirp in response. He shrugged Dave’s arm aside once their temperatures dropped, and pulled a blanket from the floor. He covered them both and repositioned himself, letting their feet tangle. He nested his head under Dave’s chin and let one of his hands find its way to caress Dave’s hair.

They fell asleep like that, and when they did wake up, they only felt closer.


End file.
